Do You Know The Healthiest Foods to Stock in Your Kitchen Year-Round?

Attaining  optimal health should be your primary goal. Besides exercise and lifestyle – the next major component is diet. Based on studies – and numerous testimonials over the years – we bring you a list of 15 foods that really can represent  ” The Healthiest Foods To Stock in Your Kitchen Year Round.

There’s no getting around your diet. Your physical health is a direct reflection of what you put into your body, and how you live your life in general.

Pre-packaged processed foods may be convenient, but cooking from scratch using fresh unprocessed ingredients is a must if you want to improve your health.

Remember that one of the keys to staying healthy is avoiding processed foods as much as possible. This means someone, you, your spouse, or someone else, needs to spend regular time in the kitchen.

Once you’re eating non-adulterated foods—foods that are as close to their natural state as possible—then basically everything you eat is a “superfood.” You need nutrients—all of them—and nutrients are found in abundance in fresh, raw foods.

Still, lists of specific items can be helpful to steer you in the right direction. So to help you get started, the following 15 foods are items Dr Mercola recommends recommend you keep on hand so that you always have healthy key ingredients to choose from for cooking and snacking.

The original article has a comprehensive explanation about each one of these. We left the one on Himalayan salt intact here. Click here to read the entire, very informative post.

1. Sunflower and Other Sprouted Seeds

2. Organic Pastured Eggs

3. Butter

4. Fermented Vegetables

5. Avocado

6. Macadamia Nuts and Pecans

7. Organic Coconut Oil

8. Fresh Herbs

9. Raw Garlic

10. Homemade Broth

11. Himalayan Salt

Salt is essential for life, and your body needs it for optimal function. But it’s important to realize that there are major differences between the refined and highly processed salt found in processed foods and regular table salt, and unrefined natural salt, like sea salt or Himalayan salt. The former will promote damaging health effects, while the latter is important to many biological processes, including:

Being a major component of your blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, extracellular fluid, and even amniotic fluid	Carrying nutrients into and out of your cells, and helping maintain your acid-base balance	Increasing the glial cells in your brain, which are responsible for creative thinking and long-term planning. Both sodium and chloride are also necessary for the firing of neurons
Maintain and help regulate blood pressure	Helping your brain communicate with your muscles, so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange	Supporting the function of your adrenal glands, which produce dozens of vital hormones

Natural unprocessed salt, such as Himalayan salt, contains about 85 percent sodium chloride and 15 percent naturally-occurring trace minerals—about 84 of them in all, including silicon, phosphorus, and vanadium. On hot days, or after exercising and sweating profusely, you can make a wholesome sports drink to replenish lost electrolytes and minerals by mixing a pinch of Himalayan salt and a dash of fresh lemon juice in a glass of water.

12. Canned Alaskan Salmon

13. Raw Milk from Organic, Grass-Fed Cows

14. Whey Protein

15. Yogurt and Kefir Made from Organic, Grass-Fed Milk

article source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/16/15-healthiest-foods.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu0ibbNU0Mk
photo source: http://www.directionsact.com/img/hfood.jpg